Our students
realising the potential in people - photography by Paloma Pargac
| Individual case studies.... | |
| JOHN As a young boy, John led a fairly normal life in the Gulu district of northern Uganda. But at 9 years old, like one million other children in the region, his father was killed by rebels of the Lord’s Resistance Army. He lived with his mother until she died of AIDS a year later. At 10 years old, John’s world had imploded. He completed primary school despite missing several months of school during his final year because he was working to help his grandmother raise the fees. At 12, he decided to move away from the village in western Uganda to Kampala district in order to earn enough money to fund his secondary education. He told his grandmother: “If I stay here, my life cannot continue.” John joined Onwards and Upwards School when it opened in February 2008: “I like the environment here and the buildings, especially the laboratories.” He makes bricks to fund his education. He can make up to 500 bricks in a weekend and must sell 5000 bricks to earn the 100,000 shillings (less than £30) he needs for his termly expenses. |
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| EDITH At 14, Edith Katasi is enrolled in senior three at Onwards & Upwards school in Buloba. She enjoys music, dancing and spending time with her friends; she loves parties. "But the thing which makes me happiest is my education. When I get more knowledge it makes me happy. I want to continue my studies and become a lawyer. But I will have to study very hard and for a very long time." When she is at home, she helps her father by fetching water, washing his clothes and sometimes cooking for her younger brothers and sisters. Edith never knew her mother. Her stepmother did not want her to attend school because it was too expensive, but her father insisted and spends almost all the money he makes as a driver educating her. He pays for her to board at Onwards and Upwards school Buloba: "I like this school because they serve lunch here, unlike many schools. That makes the students happy." |   |
| ANTHONY At 15, Anthony lives alone, renting a single room just large enough for a narrow mattress to remain in the corner without it impeding the opening door. He is a talented artist: on the windowless walls of his room Anthony has posters that he created himself. One is a flowery motif that reads, “loneliness is precious”. He fled his native Rwanda in 1994, along with hundreds of thousands of other ethnic Tutsis, to escape being slaughtered by Hutu militia. He does not know what happened to his family: “I was too young. An older boy saved me. Even now I could not tell you how I got to Uganda. He told me that they were killing all the boys in our village.” The boy looked after Anthony for several years, working as cattle-herder to feed them both: “When I was old enough I also worked. The cattle-owner paid us very little money, 2000 shillings a day [60p] instead of 20,000 [£6], because he knew we could not complain. We slept on the ground because we didn’t have a bed. Often we would go to sleep without eating all day. One day, the boy became very ill and could not work. Anthony tried to take care of him but he died several weeks later: “He had malaria. But even malaria you can recover from. I think my friend died of hunger.” Anthony was 11 years old when he started primary school. He spoke neither English nor Luganda – the main languages of Uganda – and he could not read or write. Nonetheless, cramming seven years of primary education into just two years, he achieved a high 2nd Grade. |  “Without education, you cannot get many jobs…there are many people suffering all over Africa because they are not educated.”  |
| RUTH “It is difficult living with my cousin. But I would live anywhere so that I could study here.” Ruth is an orphan. Her parents both died in 1999: first she lost her father to cancer, then her mother shortly afterwards to Aids. At 17, she cannot talk about her parents without a tremulous sorrow. She lived with her auntie and cousins in Nansana but she had to move in with her cousin in so that she could come to school in Buloba: “It is difficult living with my cousin. But I would live anywhere so that I could study here.” “The life at this school is different from other schools. The way the school was built is very nice; the fees are not too much and the head master can listen to those who are poor; they provide lunch unlike other schools.” “If I could change one thing in my life, I would bring my parents back. It is really very difficult to live without parents.” Asked which one thing she would change in Uganda, Ruth replied: “One thing is not enough. There are many things which really hurt people.” HELP MORE YOUNG PEOPLE LIKE RUTH GO TO SCHOOL - DONATE TO PEAS Thanks to Paloma Pargac for photography - (see more of her work on her website here) & to Louka Travlos for producing the stories Thanks also, of course, to each of our inspirational students featured here. |   |
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